Guest Preacher - Gary Jones
Please join us in welcoming Rev. Gary Jones Sunday, October 24. Gary has been a priest for 36 years, serving in inner-city and suburban parishes in Tennessee, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. He helped establish Urban Ministry Centers in Knoxville, TN and Charlotte, NC, and he served as the bishop’s Canon for Social Ministries in Tennessee. Gary has also been a member of the Fellowship of the Society of St. John the Evangelist (SSJE), the oldest Episcopal monastic order, where he first learned ancient Christian contemplative practices and the ministry of spiritual direction. He recently retired from St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, a very large and socially engaged parish known for its beautiful worship, both ancient and new, and its many ministries to the larger community, including:
- A tuition-free, Episcopal Middle School in Richmond’s most vulnerable part of town;
- A speaker series that has included Mary Oliver, Jon Meacham, Martin Laird, Harvey Cox, Jane Hirschfield, and Barbara Brown Taylor;
- And environmental stewardship ministries that include a weekly Farmers Market, weekly Community Meals for all, a popular Café, weekly food distributions throughout the city, a campus powered in part by solar panels, and regular recycling and energy-saving efforts for the larger community.
In retirement, Gary is especially interested in assisting parish churches with contemplative practices, small group ministries, and rethinking the ministry of the church for the 21st century. Gary and his wife Cherry have three adult children in Boston and Richmond and two golden retrievers.